Bruins' Matt Bartkowski thriving in bigger role

In Dennis Seidenberg's absence, Matt Bartkowski was suddenly asked to eat big minutes against top competition and take regular shifts on the penalty kill.

By Dan CagenDaily News staff

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Matt Bartkowski had several call-ups to the NHL in his first three years with the Bruins, but they were just that — call-ups, temporary fill-ins for an injured member of the varsity or to serve as depth.

The defenseman may have been on an NHL salary for the time being, but he couldn't feel like a Boston Bruin, not really. Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron and Johnny Boychuk were his teammates for a week, two if he was lucky; it's hardly the chance to get to know someone.

That's tough for Bartkowski, who's a goofball. The Pittsburgh native likes a joke, often at his teammates' expense. He's the type of guy who if you don't know him well, you might actually think he's being serious and get rubbed the wrong way.

Earlier this season, when the nattily attired Carl Soderberg walked through the dressing room at Ristuccia Arena, Bartkowski quipped, "Are you going to church?"

The 25-year-old has been on the Boston roster all season. Perhaps a year or two ago, Bartkowski wouldn't have said that.

"Any time you come to a new team, you be yourself, but I like to ease myself in," Bartkowski said Sunday, then adding with a laugh. "You don't want to piss anybody off. Let them get to know you before you piss them off. It is different in that sense this year. From being around every day and getting to know the guys better, it's a good thing."

His personality, with all his jokes and eccentricities, have come included in the package.

"He's definitely on the lighter side of things," Milan Lucic said. "He loves music and he sings along with music all the time in the dressing room, which is fun, because I'm kind of the same way."

Bartkowski has gotten to be himself on the ice more recently as well.

Early in the year, Bartkowski was the seventh defenseman. He played in four of the Bruins' first 16 games. When he did play, he wasn't at optimum performance.

Bartkowski has always been what assistant general manager Don Sweeney calls an "elite skater," but the other aspects of being an NHL defenseman have come slower to him. The puck-handling and decision-making can be clunky at times, turnovers coming in bunches. They're the elements that Bartkowski needed three years in the AHL to iron out of his game.

Yet it's hard to stay in good habits when you're not playing. Bartkowski fell out of rhythm in the early months of the season.

"Just not really playing on instinct," he said of the early-season issues. "I was just getting by. Now I can use my assets and do a lot better."

That's because Bartkowski has become not just a regular in the lineup, but a top-four defenseman routinely used against scoring lines. In the wake of Dennis Seidenberg's season-ending injury last month, Bartkowski has played over 20 minutes eight times in 12 games.

His decisions with the puck on his stick have improved. He's rushing the puck into the offensive zone. The turnovers have decreased.

"It's a lot easier because I don't have to think," Bartkowski said of the impact of more ice time. "You kind of just play on instinct. As long as my feet are moving, that's the main thing, then I can usually be pretty consistent. That's the main thing.

"It's more responsibility, and with Seids going down, there was a lot to be had there. He played a lot of minutes, he played in every situation. So all those things … are there to be eaten up by us now. The more I get, the better I play."

Those first half-dozen games sans Seids weren't great for Bartkowski, or the Bruins defense as a whole. In the six games after Seidenberg was hurt, the Bruins allowed 21 goals. In the last six games, that number has nearly been sliced in half, down to 11.

Bartkowski was suddenly asked to eat big minutes against top competition and take regular shifts on the penalty kill.

"It's taken him a while because it is an adjustment, not just ice time but who you're playing with and against, stuff like that," coach Claude Julien said. "He's made that adjustment pretty well lately, so he's getting used to it and getting better at it. That's been a big help for our hockey club."

Last Sunday, he took many of his shifts against the electric second line of the Blackhawks, Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw and Patrick Kane. That trio combined for a total of five shots on net.

Performances like that could impact general manager Peter Chiarelli's thinking in the pursuit of a defenseman at the March 5 trade deadline.

"You put a guy in who was asked to fill some pretty big shoes in Bartkowski's case," Julien said. "The more we're moving forward, the more we're seeing more get comfortable at it, so that transition is kind of being made right now smoothly. He's not Seidenberg by any means, they play a different kind of game.

"But the role that he's playing, the position he's playing, I think he's doing a great job at it."